This is a beautiful and intellectually handsome work of evolutionary biology. Complex and clear, nuanced and down-to-earth, Jablonka and Lamb have written what can only be a benchmark text for anyone looking to get a handle on where the theory of evolution stands today. Dominated by decades of ‘gene-centric’ assumptions - i.e. that only information in the ‘gene’ gets passed down from generation to generation - J+L slowly and meticulously lay out the emerging science behind the discovery of other ‘dimensions' of heredity: not only the genetic, but also the ‘epigenetic, behavioural, and symbolic’ mechanisms of heritable variation. Hence, ‘evolution in four dimensions’. Laid out in the abstract like this, these words hardly convey the revolution in thought that such an idea implies, but, for anyone whose education in evolution was through say, the popular works of Richard Dawkins or Steven Pinker, J+L’s presentation will come off as nothing less than paradigm-breaking, in the best of possible ways.
Never polemical and always precise, E4D makes its case not through searing invective and party-room denunciation, but through the sheer and overwhelming force of evidence and conceptual clarity. Moving step-by-step through each of the dimensions chapter-by-chapter (before ‘putting humpty-dumpty back together again' in the third part of the book), the sheer breadth of topics and ideas covered here would be overwhelming if not for ease with which they are all discussed: from the mysteries of methylation to the origins of language, the quirks of birdsong and the coloured coats of rats, across all its scales is life traversed in a painted tapestry equal to its richness. Yet if it was only the admission of the extra-genetic dimensions of heredity at stake here, E4D would not be quite the bombshell work of biology that it really is. Over and beyond that emphasis however, is nothing less than the readmission of a neo-Larmarckist element into the theory of evolution: the idea that characteristics acquired in the life of the organism may in fact of evolutionarily relevance.
While it’s hard to overstate just how heretical the charge of Lamarckism has been in the history of science, it’s the clarion call for a re-worked Larmackism, one thoroughly compatible with the findings of modern biology, that really sets this book apart. Indeed, for L+J, a certain Larmarckism simply ‘falls out’ of the admission of extra-genetic pathways of inheritance, and it’s to their everlasting credit that they pursue these implications right to their ends. As they emphasise over and over again, once you admit just those extra-genetic dimensions into the theory of evolution, so too must one admit the significance of developmental changes (changes acquired in an organism’s lifetime) right into its ambit. And, as the cherry on top, so too must one admit certain and - importantly - naturally emergent mechanisms of ‘directedness' in the process of evolution (in other words, evolution isn’t just a ‘blind’ process!). Exactly how these conclusions are wrought is just what makes this book the exciting and fascinating read that it is, and frankly, no one interested in the natural history - and present - of life can afford to ignore the scientific jewel that is Evolution in Four Dimensions.